When I get requests from small business clients to help them break into social media, the first thing I do is start by looking at their website because I know that that’s probably the first place their customers will go to evaluate their products or services. One of the most common things I find on their home landing page is that I can’t tell what they do or what they could do for me as a customer. It may sound silly, but the problem is when a business owner looks at their own site, they do it with a lot of knowledge in their head. To get an objective view of your website imagine you know nothing about your business or better yet, get someone else who doesn’t know about your business to look at your website.

To improve your small business website, follow these 5 rules:

1. Rule 1: People’s attention span is extremely short, don’t test it. If they can’t figure out what you do or what they should do, they will leave your site.
2. Rule 2: Make sure that anyone who visits your small business website can immediately determine what you can do for them and what action you want them to take. The latter is called, “the call to action”. You don’t want to hit them over the head with what to do (like too many pop-ups), but you want it to be clear. See rule 1.

   What this means is that by just looking at the home landing page, a customer should be clear about what you sell, what applies to them, and what next step they should take. For example, if you sell dog and cat food from a brick and mortar store, you want the dog owners to find the dog food and the cat owners to find the cat food and you want them to easily be able to find directions, hours of service, and a phone number to call you. That’s a simple example, but all too often I see a lot of industry jargon and mission type statements on a home page. Those don’t mean anything to the average visitor. Take that content off your home page and focus on what’s in it for the visitor.

3. Rule 3: Make sure your site is logically organized. Do you hide the Contact Us under the Products menu item? Why? – that isn’t where you would normally look for that type of information. Think carefully about the items that are included in your top level menu and then make sure that everything that comes under each of them makes sense. See rule 1. If visitors can’t easily find what they want, they will leave.
4. Rule 4: Don’t use industry jargon and too much “marketing” speak. See rule 1. People tire of “best in class” and other such over-used terms. And remember that acronyms can mean different things in different industries. For example, IMS has a very different meaning if you are in IT, finance, communications, or healthcare. It’s better to spell things out and don’t assume your audience will know what it is.
5. Rule 5: Does your site pass the “so what?” test? This is something I learned quite early on in my career. I wrote what is called a product bulletin, an announcement of a new product. I thought I did a great job, but my manager sent it back to me with the words “So What?” written in red all over the page. At first I was crushed, but I came to understand that what I had done was to simply list all the great features of the product without explaining why the customer should care. I was thinking that of course they would know why the new feature was important to them, but my manager was right, it’s more important to explain the “so what” than the “what”. Don’t make people guess why something is important to them. See rule 1.

For additional information on small business websites, also see 5+ Pitfalls to Avoid for Your Local Small Business Website

OK, so by now you know that rule 1, well rules. Your small business website must be intuitive, concise, well organized, and free of jargon with a clear call to action or you risk losing your customer to confusion. Good luck and if I can be of assistance, please let me know.